iS84 LETTERS FROM ITALY 



As usual the weather is " unusual " hot in the sun, cold 

 round the corner and at night. Moreover, I found by yester- 

 day's paper that the beastly Sicilians won't give up their ten 

 days' quarantine. So all chance of getting to Catania or Palermo 

 is gone. I am not sure whether we shall stay here for some 

 time or go to Rome, but at any rate we shall be here a week. 



Dohrn is away getting subsidies in Germany for his new 

 ship. We inspected the 'Aquarium this morning. Eisig and 

 Mayer are in charge. Madame is a good deal altered in the 

 course of the twelve years that have elapsed since I saw her, 

 but says she is much better than she was. 



As for myself, I got very much better when in North Italy in 

 spite of the piercing cold. But the fatigue of the journey from 

 Ancona here, and the worry at the end of it, did me no good, and 

 I have been seedy for a day or two. However, I am picking up. 



I see one has to be very careful here. We had a lovely drive 

 yesterday out Pausilippo, but the wife got chilled and was shaky 

 this morning. However, we got very good news of our daughter 

 this evening, and that has set us both up. 



My blessing for to-morrow will reach you after date. Let 

 us hear how everything went off. 



Your return in May project is really impracticable on ac- 

 count of the Fishery Report. I cannot be so long absent from 

 the Home Office whatever I might manage with S.K. 



With our love to Mrs. Foster and you Ever yours very 

 faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



This letter, as he says a week later, was written when 

 he ' was rather down in the mouth from the wretched 

 cold weather, and the wife being laid up with a bad cold," 

 besides his own ailments. 



I find I have to be very careful about night air, but nothing 

 does me so much good as six or seven miles' walk between 

 breakfast and lunch at a good sharp pace. So I conclude that 

 there cannot be much the matter, and yet I am always on the 

 edge, so to speak, of that infernal hypochondria. 



We have settled down here very comfortably, and I do not 

 think we shall care to go any further south. Madame Dohrn 

 and all the people at the stazione are very kind, and want to do 

 all sorts of things for us. The other day we went in the launch 

 to Capri, intending next day to go to Amalfi. But it threatened 

 bad weather, so we returned in the evening. The journey 



